Controlling the Beast: What are my options?

I've been having a lot of problems with Akira in terms of being trapped into positions where I have no idea what I should do to counter. I find myself being decent with rushing down with Akira but that can only take me so far once I get into a mess. I usually get trapped in setups that seem to chain up to another set of events where my Akira gets stopped in his tracks.

So, hopefully someone can give me some help against specific characters and maybe I'll not be the only one that is going to learn from this.

vs. Sarah: When she's in her flamingo stance and I'm right there with her, it feels like I'm stuck.

In her Flamingo Stance, she has a multitude of options just from one kick. From Rapid Kick -> Kicks that cover all grounds High, Mid and Low. I don't have a way to experiment with it (no second player to help me control the other person in training) so I don't know if I have an opportunity in-between the Rapid Kick or not. It also feels that while trying to evade, the second kick would hit me if I evade even and resets me back into that situation again. Can someone please give me an analysis of her stance so I can figure out what options I can do and gives me an area to improve on to get out of it?

vs. Lei-Fei: He has so many stances and what seems like so many options. One particular problem I have is when he is in the Hai Shiki stance. Lei-Feis that I've fought usually do /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/k.gif (Mid Kick, can evade, sucks when hit) or /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/d.gif /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/k.gif (sweep). I think (not sure) that I'm placed in a frame disadvantage when he goes into this stance (by a chain of punches that goes into that stance) and I'm forced to Evade or to Block Low. Are these my only option for this situation? Is there more that I can do? What of the other stances? What options do I have against those as Akira, what can I do?

Constant Poking Spam: Often times I find myself fighting someone who would spam certain moves where I would just have a hard time getting out of. Specifically: Low Punch. At the risk of sounding really noobish, I usually block low punches but getting out of it is just doesn't seem to work. When I try to evade, I usually evade late because I have to get out of my block and that seems to slow me down. Trying to counter seems to lead me nowhere (again, not sure if it is the online lag or if my timing just sucks for counters). When I do get out of these situations though, I'm just left alive, done nothing to the opponent and could easily slip back into that position where I get low jabbed again. What can I do to break the person's moral of low jabbing? Countering would seem like it would be enough but are there other ways to extremely punish them and show how angry Akira can get?

Anyways... that seems to be my major question for right now. I'll have more and again I'll ask for more help. I'm still trying to get into the system and while some of the things just seem like I'm in a blind man in a dark room trying to throw darts at a dart board that doesn't exist, I really do want to learn the ins-and-outs of this game.

 

My discoveries from online combat.

Sarah's only move that Akira can't deal with from Flamingo is her /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/p.gif. It's the fastest punch in game tied with Vanessa's /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/df.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/p.gif (DS).

If the Sarah you fight spams her punch from Flamingo, then either Sabaki with /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/b.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/p.gif+/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/k.gif+/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/g.gif,/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/f.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/p.gif or crouching punch. Evading her from flamingo isn't easy, but it's totally doable. At point blank if I get the chance, I'll use Akira's Bodycheck to smash a Flamingoed Sarah.

Lei-Fei is Sidestep bait now. My first online ranked fight was with a spam switching low jabbing Lei Fei. Not good. But you'll realize that he has VERY FEW circular options that are high speed from his stances. If he's in a stance, there's a 90% chance he's going to use a high speed move that should be done at advantage. Akira can dodge and DM from disadvantage. Done right, it'll CH and you'll be standing up with a side-flipping Lei Fei on the floor. Sidestep him.

Low jabs. Sabaki them to hell. /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/b.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/p.gif+/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/k.gif+/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/g.gif,/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/f.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/p.gif AND /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/df.gif/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/p.gif+/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/k.gif+/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/g.gif both work to rape low punches. Countering in my opinion is only effective if your foe is facing the right direction lying down and you can counter their wakeup kick. It's also VERY effective to counter when your risk is high and yomi is high. If you're at disadvantage, countering is only bad if you really don't know wtf is going on. nothing like countering a somersault kick to end a fight with BOOYAH!

I'd suggest checking on the Adaptive Akira thread as well as considering that Akira doesn't have THAT many options to work with. However, with what little he has vs. other people's move lists, he has in my opinion, the best of the best. [as in all of his moves I find to have some use]

 

Cool, I have a hard time with that flamingo thing from sarah n fighting lei-fei too. It's like it immobilizes me and I just end up standing there blockin wich leads to me getting thrown. Good lookin out Michishio, ima try dem tactics

 

One of the options you can use is to mix multiple steps.

For that Lei-Fei case, is you are at a distant, you can simply backdash to avoid lei's Hai-shiki - k(it's reach isn't that long.

Other option you have is backdash - use avoid to cancle backdash-crouch dash to canlse failed evasion. Backdash can leave you more room, buffered evade let you evade linear attacks, and crouch dash(in this case backward CD will be more useful) to cancle failed evasion. If you start with proper distance, you can just backdash to evade lei's Hai-shiki - k. If he delays his attack, you can whiff the k with buffered evasion. If he happened to use 2k, u can use crouch backdash(or crouch dash)-guard to guard it, and punish him with SPOD(I think it is guaranteed?) or knee.

One note. When Akira guards any opponent's low full circular attack, knee is always guaranteed. So eff them with knee. Actually, abuse knee if possible. Akira is kinda weak against Lei's Dokuritsu-shiki auto reversal, but knee can punish the hell out of him, and he will more likely to attack from dokuritsu shiki rather than trying the auto-reversal. Knee is particularly strong against those who abuse 2p when their attack has been evaded. Knee all the way!

 

Also, if it's possible, against 2p spammers, send them to hell with 33p. 33p's execution fr + your advantage from guarding opponent's 2p = opponents total fr to use 2p right after it has been guarded.

And you know if the execution fr is same, the move with greater damage wins. Counter those weak spammers with 33p, and give'em hell with your some 80~90damage combo. Telling you, they won't use 2p is they get effed by 33p several times.


I know it's really hard to do in XBOX live tho... /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/frown.gif

 

Uhhh i use lei fei and i would love it if everyone backdashed away from Hai shiki cuz ur gonna catch a full power p+k right in the mouth, which if u tech roll afterwards will cost 100 life. stick with sidesteps or if u know hes going into hai shiki i.e. punches 3 times just low kick him immediately. his foot sticks out and is the best way to stop him form punishing you. dont use low puch because bokutai ducks under it and a whole slew of other attacks.

 

Well.. it's easy to sidestep fully charged P+K after backdash. I actually use backdash-sidestep to whiff that out, and punish